Prudie has long felt that the reflexive, polite demur is not necessary when people are impertinently out of line, either with their advice or their questions.

Workers and unions are enjoined to accept wage cuts without too much demur , provided they are satisfied jobs would be saved.

You can plead by way of reply and demur , can you not?

Those of us who demur are labelled ‘self-haters’.

It can be dealt with in the ordinary way and if the Judge who hears the matter thinks there is anything in it, well, it will proceed to trial or maybe the Commonwealth will demur or you will demur , as the case may be.

they accepted this ruling without demur

Indeed, although this is not before the Court, I am sure my learned friend would not demur at my reading it – we have copies for the Court.

they accepted this ruling without demur

Much, and much of the best, criticism in the past decade has been thus motivated; we now know a poet less quaint, less demur , and more politically engaged than previous generations might have imagined.

‘Not because I’m the best, but because I’m the fastest,’ he demurs in his New York-via-Edinburgh accent.

‘No, no,’ he demurs , waving his hands in front of his face.

She’s not unmoved, but demurs because she doesn’t want to complicate their arrangement.

‘I’m not a very good close reader of my own work,’ she demurs when asked to explain the meaning of an incident near the end of The Namesake.

‘You’ll have to talk to the industry spokespeople about that,’ he demurred .

‘I can’t tell you,’ he demurred during the salad course.

‘So I’ve heard,’ I demurred , moving farther down the aisle in search of something for my own late night viewing.

When asked the age of her son she cheerfully demurs , claiming with some justification that such questions are normally only asked as a way of deducing her own age – dangerous information, which most sopranos prefer to keep to themselves.

‘I’m not interested in Hollywood,’ she demurs .

Humans, she demurs , are not accustomed to such ‘rapid changes,’ as she terminates the relationship.

Greenspan agreed with his diagnosis, but demurred .

He demurs : ‘Losing a battle does not mean you will lose the war.’

The defendant could not have demurred to the plaintiff’s declaration, which would have shown a perfectly good cause of action, and, unless the defendant set up something to defeat the claim, the action would have been maintainable.

He demurs on the idea of stiffer criminal penalties, but suggests there may be a need for more sentencing guidelines on civil fraud and failed audits.

‘I don’t think I’ll ever be in such a big hit as that again, because that’s impossible,’ she demurs .

Yet Stevenson demurs mildly, and says diplomatically: ‘I think actors often improvise in character in a scripted film, so it’s not that unusual.’

Yet every time he’s asked about his influence, English demurs , deflects all credit onto the team, the players.

The reference in the final sentence of this passage is to the fact that the claimants had not demurred to the ten heads of particulars pleaded by the newspaper in support of meaning, namely grounds for investigation.